Forgive me, Betamor....

.....for I have sinned.

I used fake potatos in my lefse. I knew as I was grilling these tonight that my great-grandmother and my maternal grandparents were probably rolling in their graves. But it's getting to that hotter time of year and I promised E that I would make lefse. This is just easier than boiling and ricing potatos.

And here's a blurry picture of the Purple Rain monkeys.

busy weekend

It's been a busy weekend around here.

My friend, Sarah, who I visited last April out in Virginia has since moved back to Minnesota and drove down to visit me. She got here on Wednesday and she'll be leaving this afternoon. We've had fun just bumming around the house and watching movies.

And then Saturday I took her letterboxing. Managed to find three boxes at two different locations and the letterboxing bug that had lain dormant in my system during the winter reared its ugly head. I've got the clues for three more boxes printed out to be found later this week. I might add to that pile since I've got today (Sunday) off and then three days off this week before working the weekend again.

I've also been knitting and spinning like crazy. The Big Yellow Taxi/Hawkeye yarn is done. I just have to set the twist before I send it off to Mom. I also finished the second Monkey sock out of my handspun CMF I've Got You Babe. I do have pictures, but they're on my camera so you'll see them later. And I've been knitting like a fiend on the Mystic Lights shawl. I am actually managing to keep up with the clues. I finished the last few rows of clue one on Thursday night, but since the second clue had only come out on Wednesday, I didn't feel too bad about being slightly behind. I'm currently six rows into the second clue. Since Sarah's in bed, I'm planning on putting on a couple episodes of Voyager and seeing if I can get a couple more rows done before I hit the sack.

Oh! I also picked up the Yarn Harlot's latest book. I'm only 20 pages in or so, but it's already made me laugh at several different points. And I tried baking a chocolate-covered cherry cookie, and they came out sooooo good!

Soup recipe

Here the recipe I used to make the soup I talked about yesterday. It's so yummy for these chilly days!

Cheesy Potato Soup

2 1/2 lbs. russet potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 c. cooked ham, cubed
3-4 green onions, sliced (I used 8, but I like onion and that's how they came at the store)
2 cans cream of chicken soup
1 can cream of mushroom soup
8 oz. container sour cream with chives
8 oz. container plain sour cream
3 c. finely shredded Cheddar cheese
salt and pepper to taste (I didn't salt or pepper mine and it was wonderful, but to each his own!)

Cover potatoes with water in a saucepan. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer until tender. Place potatoes and cooking water in a slow cooker (mine's a smaller Rival brand....2.5 quart I think.....and that was too small for this recipe....use your big slow cooker). Combine other ingredients in another bowel and mix well. Add to potatoes in slow cooker and stir well. Cover and cook on high setting for 2-3 hours, or on low setting for 4-6 hours. Add salt and pepper to taste. Makes 6-8 servings.

A night of things getting done

Since this is my one day off out of 6, I had a bunch of stuff that needed to be done. I dragged my sorry butt out of bed about 4, and headed outside. I got my front and backyards mowed and all the grass picked up there. Then I came inside and did laundry so I'll have something to wear tonight for work.

I had finished my Chanticleer RPMs at work Sunday night and I have a co-worker who's expecting a little boy, so I sat down tonight and started a pair of baby socks out of the leftovers of the Chanticleer. One sock is done and the second one is cast-on.

I also put my Johnny Cash/June Carter scarf in some Soak wash so I could block it. It's now pinned out and drying and this coming weekend I'll be able to get some pictures of it. Then NotScarlett can get off my back about posting pictures! (just kidding)

I'll get pics of the RPMs and the baby socks as well.

Before I go to bed this morning, I'm going to make some cheesy potato soup in the slow-cooker and that should be wonderful when I get up in the afternoon. Yum!

no knitting

Last night definitely was not a knitting night for me. I got one repeat done on my Super Monkey socks and that's it. The rest of my night was spent in cleaning.

A group from my church is coming over tonight and the place needed to be picked up, groceries needed to be bought, and I was just going nuts in general.

Well, the house is done, but now I need to get myself ready, make dinner, bake cookies and maybe...just maybe....look over the passages we're going to be studying tonight.

In other knitting news....

I started another Ombre Blanket from LMKG for a co-worker's wedding/first anniversary present. But I need to rip it out and do it again with fewer stitches.

Started the Super Monkey socks on Wednesday at Eliza's. They're the Monkey sock pattern from knitty and I'm knitting them up in the Superman colorway of Cider Moon's Icicle sock yarn.

Eliza also exerted her peer pressure and I'm now working on a Super Secret Project. I obviously can't talk about it, but it's going to be cool!!!

Off to shower, cook and bake!!

And since our last slow-pitch softball game was rained out last week, we're having it this week. Same time (5:00) and place (the softball complex just west of 120th and Fort).

the latest FO

Here they are! My latest socks....



They're basic stockinette socks using the cheat sheet formula in the Yarn Harlot's Knitting Rules book. 72 stitches on size 1 Knitpicks dpns using Trekking XXL color 76. Here's a closer look.



The color's really washed out but at least you can see the color shifts. It's actually closer in color to the deep burgundy in the first picture.

And I finished the secret project tonight at SnB after getting the new ball of yarn from Minnie. Yay!! So I'm going full steam ahead on my Rocktober Rock and Weave sock while I keep impatiently waiting for my sock club kit to get here.

Plus I finished the cheesecake to take to work for the potluck.